The Secret to Diane Lane’s Glamour: ‘Keep It Simple’

Diane Lane is the epitome of simplicity: She doesn’t enjoy shopping. She’s not impressed by anyone’s airbrushed and filtered Instagram glamour shots. And she doesn’t overthink what she wears, either.

“I don’t compare myself enough to be aware of what’s out there,” Lane tells Yahoo Style when asked about her own fashion choices. “I don’t have the patience to try anything on. I’ll try it on at home and bring it back later if it doesn’t fit, thank you very much. I just want to keep it simple.”

In fact, her new movie Paris Can Wait is all about indulging in the most basic treats that life has to offer. And Lane is thrilled to be starring in a film about finding joy while on the road during a time that’s filled with political uncertainty back home.

“The news is bombarding us with negativity and divisiveness. I think going to France and on a road trip is quite medicinal for the audience — with wine, cheese, and chocolate,” Lane says. “I just had a ball. There was plenty of wine, off-camera, don’t worry. I’m an ascetic? No way.”

Director Eleanor Coppola first approached Lane in 2013 with the script, but the moment wasn’t right.

“It was a difficult time — the divorce, losing my mother, empty nest. It was a heck of a time,” says Lane, referring to her split from Josh Brolin coupled with the journey to college for daughter Eleanor Lambert (from Lane’s first marriage, to French actor Christopher Lambert).

But two years later, Coppola hit her up again, and Lane felt much more settled. “I got my mojo back,” she says. “I was able to say yes to whatever joie de vivre smells and looks and tastes like. It takes time. It helps to be pursuing gratitude, however one can conjure that up. We don’t allow any space for spontaneity in our lives. It’s not even on the menu.”

Diane Lane and her daughter, Eleanor Lambert. (Photo: Getty Images)

The actress, hailed as the new Grace Kelly by Time magazine back in 1979, after her debut in A Little Romance, has had a rock-steady career — during which time she’s had a heated affair with Olivier Martinez in Unfaithful and found her groove again in Under the Tuscan Sun. And she’s Martha Kent in the upcoming Justice League film. In all, she’s been working for nearly four decades and is one of the handful of actresses who seem to have left their face alone. She has laugh lines and a forehead that moves.

“Thank you. Moving is good. Proof of life. It’s tricky and I try not to comment — but thanks,” she says. “I eat a lot of oily food — I moisturize from the inside out. I’m only half-kidding. There’s hardly a meal when I don’t eat enough olive oil.”

For beauty maintenance, Lane is a fan of Armani, and her go-to is the luxurious Crema Nera moisturizer, followed by Power Fabric foundation and coral lips courtesy of Rouge Ecstasy lipstick in 103 and 510. Her look is easy and natural and allows her to live her life without constant touchups. In general, she tries to carve out moments when she’s doing nothing but just being.

“That has been the gift, by the way, of the empty nest. Marriage is adios; I can do my own thing. I try to create times that are really free zones, with no obligations to others,” she says.

It’s one of the reasons that Lane stays away from social media. In the film, her husband, played by Alec Baldwin, is surgically attached to his phone. Lane tries to take a different approach in real life.

“I don’t participate in social media because I don’t want to look up people’s beautiful, glamorous pictures,” she says. “I don’t want to see beautiful locations. I want to discover them myself. I’m a total rebel and I love it. I don’t want my phone to own me.”

And, she admits, “it’s partially because I am lazy and I don’t want to maintain it.”